Bioenergy and Food Security Criteria and Indicators (BEFSCI) project

The FAO’s Bioenergy and Food Security Criteria and Indicators (BEFSCI) project aims to develop detailed principles, criteria and indicators on sustainable bioenergy production that safeguards food security. A first draft of these principles, criteria and indicators will be discussed at two technical consultations in November 2009 and early 2010. These will then be validated through international multi-stakeholder consultations, and subsequently field-tested.

 The first FAO-BEFSCI technical consultation will take place at FAO Headquarters in Rome from 2 to 4 November 2009, with the following overall aims:

• to discuss the links between bioenergy production and food security; and
• to identify a preliminary set of criteria and indicators on sustainable bioenergy production that safeguards food security.

More precisely, this consultation aims to discuss and address the following technical questions/issues:

1. What are the key impacts (both positive and negative) of bioenergy production on food security and food security-related issues that should be assessed at the international, national, and project/site levels?

2. Which indicators should be used to measure these food security-related impacts of bioenergy production at the international, national, and project-site levels

3. For the impacts (of bioenergy production on food security) for which an indicator cannot beidentified or measured, can alternative qualitative assessment methods be used?

Tentative agenda

List of external participants